Yesterday afternoon, it was officially announced that the Houston Astros had inked free agent outfielder, Michael Brantley, to a deal. Ken Rosenthal, of The Athletic, was the first to report that Brantley was signing a two-year, $32 million dollar deal, that is still pending a physical and comes with no option years on the back end.

Looking back at last season, the Toronto Blue Jays finished with an underwhelming 73-89 record, good enough for 4th place in the American League East, something that likely underwhelmed fans and other experts around the industry alike. The Blue Jays struggles last year ultimately led to the team starting to sell off assets at the July 31st trade deadline, a disappointing end to the season, and a fanbase wondering what changes were in store to the team's personnel this winter.

The Cincinnati Reds are coming off a season in which they finished the year with a, 67-95 record, good enough for last place once again in the NL Central. In case you were wondering, that gave the Reds four consecutive last place finishes, something that certainly hasn't excited their fanbase or made Reds fans excited about looking forward to the 2019 season.

Right now, every General Manager in the game of baseball is actively looking at every avenue to upgrade their roster and plugging in different players into their computers/formula programs to see who might fit where and how it might effect the team in the bigger picture. This isn't just a process that happens this week either, as it is something, that happens multiple times throughout the offseason as well.

The Winter Meetings have been fairly quiet thus far, outside of the exception of, the Detroit Tigers signing Tyson Ross to a one-year deal, the Kansas City Royals inking Billy Hamilton to a one-year contract, and the Chicago White Sox trading for Ivan Nova, in an attempt to bolster their starting rotation. However, with that being said, while things have been quiet on the surface and while the free agent market seems to be in a standstill, there is plenty going on behind the scenes and murmurs that have come out since Sunday evening when the meetings first started.